Welcome to Riding the Elephant’s new home

Hi folks – welcome to Riding the Elephant in its new home and design (which I’ll probably change every now and again). It’s great that those of you who read the blog during the 15 months it was on Fortune.com have followed Elephant here – and good that others of you have found us for the first time.

As a journalist, India is a country that fascinates me. But it also sometimes horrifies, and that leads to a mix of what I hope are constructive posts.

In the early months last year, I infuriated some Indian readers (almost always those living abroad, and frequently in the US) because I dared to make negative comments on some aspect of the country and its icons. I think some of these readers deserted the blog – they certainly threatened to, and even told the editor to sack me – but I hope they’ll come back now, and that we can have a more open debate than was possible before.

My posts will not always be as long as the 700-800 word columns that I used to write – those columns are still available here – see below and in the side column. I’ll also probably answer comments – especially critical ones – which was not the system on Fortune.com

I’m currently on holiday in London (and Colombia later this month) so am not totally focussed on what is happening in India. Otherwise I would be commenting on three events – the long awaited Government help for the Bhopal gas victims (which might or might not help), the also-long awaited (partial) approvals for Posco and Vedanta’s mining projects in Orissa, and the crazy decision of the Mumbai authorities to make Marathi their official language.